Our house closed on May 12 and the seller is renting back from us for 3 weeks, so we have some time to take off. We made a decision to go to the ocean for a few days. Cape Lookout, tide pooling at Haystack Rock and Indian Beach, visiting Fort Stevens to see the shipwreck Peter Iredale, and see some of the decommissioned fort. Then we took a day trip to Silver Falls State Park. It's a beautiful place with many water falls, some that you can walk behind! I can't wait until I can update these posts with some pictures!
I was wondering if calling these excursions "vacations" was the correct term. Being newly retired, everything feels like a vacation. Maybe my grandson has the right idea by calling these trips adventures. Anyway, it was nice to escape the house purchasing process, and see some different areas of my adopted home state of Oregon.
Saturday, May 27, 2017
Sunday, May 21, 2017
A week with the grandkids
My daughter and son-in-law went on vacation to celebrate their 10th anniversary. The island of St. Lucia was their destination, found in the Caribbean, wonderfully warm but not too hot, slower pace of life and a place to relax for a week. In the meantime, Grandpa and I were in charge of the 5 year old kindergarten boy, Z, and the 2 year old (remember I said 2 years old) girl, M. While Mom and Dad were off on their adventure, as the grands called their parents trip, we had our own adventure with the grandkids.
We have been staying with them the whole time we've been here and we frequently visited before our move here so we all knew each other fairly well. While the grands missed their parents, they didn't have any qualms about us being in charge. We just had the normal 5 year old active boy and 2 year old girl issues to deal with but we were up for the challenge. I have to admit that age and time have caught up to me...it was easier to deal with 2 kids this age when I was younger however I do have the advantage of retirement on my side. My only "job" for the whole week was to deal with the children, we didn't have to go to a job outside the home, both Mr UAW and I could tag team all day long. The only hard part was when Mr UAW got a cold/fever for a few days. In that case I felt like I had 3 kids to take care of, but he was better for our adventures with the grands.
Our adventures turned out to be visiting the air/space museum one weekend. This was a big deal to our grandson. He was pretty excited. I think he liked the space side more than the airplane side. And a special note on the space side, we got to see some of the rocket engines that Mr UAW worked on when he was a tool designer at an aerospace company, and we got to see the space module that was picked up by a navy ship that Mr. UAW served on. On the airplane side, Z liked the B-17 bomber and the Spruce Goose.
The following weekend we spent the day at the ocean. We went to a lighthouse and Z got to climb up to the top with Grandpa. M and I stayed down as she was under the height limit to climb to the top. We went to the Tilamook Cheese Factory and of course you have to have ice cream there. And then it was off to the beach, where Z could run around like a wild 5 year old boy and M could experience waves licking her toes. Our trip to the beach was completed with an outing to a local fish and chips place. Needless to say, we had sleepy kids on the way home.
So we all more than survived our week. One of our final activities was to make a welcome home sign for Mom and Dad. We picked up the parents at the airport and enjoyed hearing about their trip.
This summer we have many adventures planned, some just Mr UAW and myself, some with just the family dog, some with one or both grandkids and some with the whole family. You'll have to check in to hear about the other ones.
We have been staying with them the whole time we've been here and we frequently visited before our move here so we all knew each other fairly well. While the grands missed their parents, they didn't have any qualms about us being in charge. We just had the normal 5 year old active boy and 2 year old girl issues to deal with but we were up for the challenge. I have to admit that age and time have caught up to me...it was easier to deal with 2 kids this age when I was younger however I do have the advantage of retirement on my side. My only "job" for the whole week was to deal with the children, we didn't have to go to a job outside the home, both Mr UAW and I could tag team all day long. The only hard part was when Mr UAW got a cold/fever for a few days. In that case I felt like I had 3 kids to take care of, but he was better for our adventures with the grands.
Our adventures turned out to be visiting the air/space museum one weekend. This was a big deal to our grandson. He was pretty excited. I think he liked the space side more than the airplane side. And a special note on the space side, we got to see some of the rocket engines that Mr UAW worked on when he was a tool designer at an aerospace company, and we got to see the space module that was picked up by a navy ship that Mr. UAW served on. On the airplane side, Z liked the B-17 bomber and the Spruce Goose.
The following weekend we spent the day at the ocean. We went to a lighthouse and Z got to climb up to the top with Grandpa. M and I stayed down as she was under the height limit to climb to the top. We went to the Tilamook Cheese Factory and of course you have to have ice cream there. And then it was off to the beach, where Z could run around like a wild 5 year old boy and M could experience waves licking her toes. Our trip to the beach was completed with an outing to a local fish and chips place. Needless to say, we had sleepy kids on the way home.
So we all more than survived our week. One of our final activities was to make a welcome home sign for Mom and Dad. We picked up the parents at the airport and enjoyed hearing about their trip.
This summer we have many adventures planned, some just Mr UAW and myself, some with just the family dog, some with one or both grandkids and some with the whole family. You'll have to check in to hear about the other ones.
Monday, May 8, 2017
Buying vs Selling
Now that we have found a place to live, I've had some time to think about a few things...like which is harder, buying a house or selling a house? I suppose the answer is dependent upon an individual's situation. For us I think it was a toss up.
Our previous house sold in a market that was a sellers market and the competition was tight. In order to get a good price we had to make it look great. So we spent a lot of time, effort and money making it look good. And we had a pest inspection done before it went on the market in order to fix things that we weren't even aware of. Our previous house had someawkward unique features to it and we were worried that those things would turn away potential buyers. Some of the people who looked at the house called out those items. It only takes that one buyer that likes what they see and the house is sold. I would go on line, look at the comparable houses in the area, notice how nicely they were staged and I knew that I had make the house look the absolute best that it could. It had to stay that way throughout the time it was on the market to the day the papers were signed. We had a great realtor, it was priced right, and it sold before a week was up. But it was also a lot of work.
Buying a house in this area is also work. The market is very tight. The inventory is low and the buyers are many. We knew if we were to buy a house that we would be looking almost every day. Many of the houses we saw went for higher than asking price. It is the norm for this area. It seems like the sellers here know they have the upper hand and they don't put forth as much effort to make their houses look great in order to sell. So we had to look past the clutter to see the potential in many of the houses. The contingency period, that time where buyers and sellers negotiate the details of the transaction, was more difficult for us as buyers than it was being a seller.
In our case we are fortunate that we have a place to stay while we find a house. If negotiations didn't work out on a house we could back off and look for another one. So in our case being a buyer was just as hard as being a seller.
Our previous house sold in a market that was a sellers market and the competition was tight. In order to get a good price we had to make it look great. So we spent a lot of time, effort and money making it look good. And we had a pest inspection done before it went on the market in order to fix things that we weren't even aware of. Our previous house had some
Buying a house in this area is also work. The market is very tight. The inventory is low and the buyers are many. We knew if we were to buy a house that we would be looking almost every day. Many of the houses we saw went for higher than asking price. It is the norm for this area. It seems like the sellers here know they have the upper hand and they don't put forth as much effort to make their houses look great in order to sell. So we had to look past the clutter to see the potential in many of the houses. The contingency period, that time where buyers and sellers negotiate the details of the transaction, was more difficult for us as buyers than it was being a seller.
In our case we are fortunate that we have a place to stay while we find a house. If negotiations didn't work out on a house we could back off and look for another one. So in our case being a buyer was just as hard as being a seller.
Sunday, May 7, 2017
New house
After looking at over 30 houses, putting in offers on 3, getting turned down twice, we found that the third offer worked. Yes, we have a house but will be renting back to the seller for 3 weeks. So our move in date is early June. That's okay because we are welcomed where we are staying right now.
Our new home is 300 square feet smaller than our previous home and that's okay with us. I can only describe it to you as I haven't figured out how to post pictures off my iPad. I guess pictures will be coming later. It's 2 bedrooms, 1 den, 2 baths, one large living area that includes the living, dining, and kitchen areas. It has a small covered deck in the back yard, a nice addition to the wetter weather that we have here. It sits on a quarter acre with a few pine trees in the back yard, a garden area and some landscaped areas. Gardening is one of my passions so I can't wait to see how the plants grow. The house itself needs some work. The main things that need to be done before winter is the roof and flue, and the south siding and a few windows need to be replaced. We were able to negotiate the price down due to the repairs needed. So between the contractors and ourselves we will be busy but not so busy that we can't enjoy retirement. And before we move in we will be painting some rooms, easier to do without all the furniture in the way. And apparently I have a helper for moving in to the new house, my 5 year old grandson. He is very eager to move things around for me. More details to come.
Our new home is 300 square feet smaller than our previous home and that's okay with us. I can only describe it to you as I haven't figured out how to post pictures off my iPad. I guess pictures will be coming later. It's 2 bedrooms, 1 den, 2 baths, one large living area that includes the living, dining, and kitchen areas. It has a small covered deck in the back yard, a nice addition to the wetter weather that we have here. It sits on a quarter acre with a few pine trees in the back yard, a garden area and some landscaped areas. Gardening is one of my passions so I can't wait to see how the plants grow. The house itself needs some work. The main things that need to be done before winter is the roof and flue, and the south siding and a few windows need to be replaced. We were able to negotiate the price down due to the repairs needed. So between the contractors and ourselves we will be busy but not so busy that we can't enjoy retirement. And before we move in we will be painting some rooms, easier to do without all the furniture in the way. And apparently I have a helper for moving in to the new house, my 5 year old grandson. He is very eager to move things around for me. More details to come.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)